In this thesis, the Swedish venture capital market and its profitability is analyzed. Venture capital is defined as capital that is invested in the early stages of a company's life cycle, in the two investment stages seed/start-up and expansion.A common view is that the profitability of Swedish venture capital has not been, is not and will probably not become high either. With this in mind, we try to answer to the following questions in this thesis:? What has the profitability of Swedish venture capital actually been historically?? Which reasons could be found in order to explain the historical returns for Swedish venture capital, and which factors has been identified in international comparative studies between venture capital markets?In order to answer these questions, data showing historical returns for the Swedish, European and American venture capital market has been gathered, an extensive literature study has been performed, and three interviews with participants from the Swedish venture capital market has been conducted.We conclude that the historical returns of Swedish venture capital is in line with the general view that they have been low. We also see a trend where Swedish venture capital funds that are not specialized in one investment stage generate lower returns than more specialized funds.

The major difference between venture capital-firms and other financiers is that their business idea is not only providing capital but also knowledge in business development. The ownership structure of an venture capital-firm can be private as well as public. The Swedish government is today one of the major actors in the Swedish venture capital-industry. The purpose of this study is to shed light on how venture capital-firms involve itself in its portfolio firm and if this contributes to an increased value of the portfolio firm. We also try to shed light on differences in how a public and a private venture capital-firm gets involved in its portfolio firm and if there is any difference in how they can contribute to added value.We have chosen to interview two public and two private venture capital-firms and one of their portfolio firms.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vilken ekonomisk betydelse crowdfunding har för företag i uppstartsfasen när de är i behov av kapital. Det teoretiska perspektivet vi utgått ifrån är två teorier: det finansiella gapet och preferensordningen i pecking order teori. Detta för att se vilken ekonomisk betydelse crowdfunding har för att täcka det finansiella behovet och även se vart i preferens-ordningen denna finansieringsform hamnar. Det empiriska datainsamlingssätt denna studie använder sig av är två stycken intervjuer med öppna frågor. Empirin består av redovisning av intervjuer med två respondenter.

Purpose: We will understand and explain Dell?s value gap through an extended intellectual capital theory. This will be done by deriving the value to the different parts of the intellectual capital value scheme. We will also use value scheme to describe the ongoing strategy shift. Methodology: The qualitative method and an abductive reasoning have been employed during the progress.

Purpose: The purpose is to present a greater understanding of the progression of innovation capital in a technology transfer and biotech start-up context. The findings offer technology transfer professionals, entrepreneurs and academia an overall perception and mental framework of the technology transfer practice and the embracement of a promising invention, building upon its hidden value. Methodology: The thesis was conducted using a qualitative case study, executed with the help of interviews, in order to answer the research question: How is an embryo of innovation capital continuously cultivated in a technology transfer and biomedical start-up process? Conclusions: A technology transfer entity provides the means to establish a platform where an entrepreneur can build its own human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital. The forms of capital interact and thus create value, herein considered as innovation capital.

The Intellectual Capital Statement facilitates the mapping of interdependent and simultaneously impacting intellectual capital factors in a unique way. The process-orientation of the German approach differentiates it from its predecessors and gives an advantage over alternative procedures. By combining these aspects with the possibility to communicate the company?s efforts and progress in the field of intellectual capital, the German Intellectual Capital Statement (Wissensbilanz) provides an effective management tool..

Det är vanligt förekommande att företag låter sig leverantörsfinansieras med handelskrediter. Den internationella forskningen är omfattande rörande vilka egenskaper och förhållanden sommotiverar leverantörsfinansiering. Syftet med denna studie är att visa vilka faktorer som är bestämmande för användandet av handelskrediter i svenska små och medelstora företag. Undersökningen inriktas på att studera vilket samband lönsamhet och skuldsättning har till handelskrediter. Företags ålder och storlek studeras också i förhållande till handelskrediter.Studien genomförs med en multipel regressionsanalys där den beroende variabelnhandelskrediter representeras av leverantörsskulder.

In a time when economic crises relieving one another, it is especially interesting to study how companies choose to finance their operations. Since there is a lack of studies that include banks, and their capital structures, with the rest of the finance market, it is uncertain whether the theories of capital structure are applicable. Therefore, this essay aims to study whether there is any correlation between the two variables debt-equity ratio and return on equity (ROE) for Swedish corporations on the finance market.In accordance with the theorems that the professors Modigliani and Miller filed, in 1958 and 1961, which describes a clear link between debts, increase corporate value through the tax shield and indirectly increased yields. Although these theorems are the foundation of the modern research they focus on perfect markets. Therefore, this paper has also chosen to place great emphasis on theories such as Trade-off and Pecking-order.

Title: Competitive Advantages in Professional Football Cubs ? A Resource-Based Analysis Authors: Daniel Grass, Mattias Holst, Bengt Jönsson Semester: Spring 2001 Supervisors: Leif Edvinsson, Allan T. Malm Problem: In order to be a successful football club, the management team has to consider a variety of business issues. Since money is having such an impact on the football industry of today, the financial status of the clubs sets the condition for how clubs are able to achieve their main objective, i.e. to be successful on the football field.

Title: Investor or Maecenas? ? A study on the usage of venture capital within the Swedish film industry.Author: Tobias MagnussonSupervisors: Ahmad Ahmadi, Clas GunnarssonPurpose: The purpose with this thesis is to complement the research on procurement of capital within the Swedish film industry.Methodology: The primarily research method that have been used to gather material is qualitative interviews, that has been performed with four individuals that are active in the Swedish film industry.Theory: In order to create an adequate theoretical base, theories regarding investments and cultural entrepreneurship are presented.Empirics: In this chapter the results of the interviews are presented, sorted in several subcategories. The material is thereafter analyzed and discussed in the following chapter, with the theoretical base in mind.Conclusion: The usage of venture capital within the Swedish film industry is relatively low today. Non-monetary values are the primary reason to invest in the Swedish film industry today. A significant risk diversification, together with knowledge dispersion needs to be made in order to make the Swedish film industry more attractive to investors.

According to statistics, requirements management is identified as a major source of error to failed IT-projects. Moreover communication is identified as a factor affecting the require-ments management and can lead to deficiencies in the requirements. The requirements analyst is responsible for managing the requirements from the different stakeholders, act as a com-munication accommodator and to translate abstract requirements expressed by users to more specific requirements that developers can implement. The purpose of this thesis is to study the role of the requirements analyst to investigate the problems that may arise in working with requirements management.  To achieve the purpose we have performed a requirements management process in which we ourselves took the role as the requirements analysts. The requirements management process consisted of three phases: gather requirements, document requirements and validate require-ments.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vilken ekonomisk betydelse crowdfunding har för företag i uppstartsfasen när de är i behov av kapital. Det teoretiska perspektivet vi utgått ifrån är två teorier: det finansiella gapet och preferensordningen i pecking order teori. Detta för att se vilken ekonomisk betydelse crowdfunding har för att täcka det finansiella behovet och även se vart i preferens-ordningen denna finansieringsform hamnar. Det empiriska datainsamlingssätt denna studie använder sig av är två stycken intervjuer med öppna frågor. Empirin består av redovisning av intervjuer med två respondenter. Studien visar att crowdfunding har en ekonomisk betydelse för företag i uppstartsfasen. Detta genom att vara ett komplement till de traditionella finansieringsformerna. .

Problem formulation: This paper will examine how the capital structure of firms affects their market valuation by applying the Modigliani-Miller theory on Swedish listed companies in a boom and a recession. The study will examine whether it is possible to draw any conclusions as to whether companies with high debt to equity ratios are valued lower in a recession, in comparison to companies with low debt to equity ratios.Purpose: To empirically test the Modigliani-Miller theory of capital structure in a boom and a recession in order to see if the companies? market value is affected differently depending on whether they have a high or a low debt to equity ratios.Methodology: The essay has a deductive and a quantitative methodological approach. Data analysis was done through a correlation analysis, a regression analysis and a hypothesis testing.Theory: The Modigliani-Miller theory of capital structure with taxes states that companies with a high debt to equity ratios has a higher value. One of the risks with a high level of debt could be that during a financial downturn companies have more difficulty realizing capital and are thus more likely to go bankrupt.Conclusions: The study shows results that are contrary to the Modigliani-Miller's theory; all the correlation analyses between debt to equity ratios and market value are negative.

The purpose of this study was to examine participants' experiences and descriptions of a municipal activation program, and how participants perceive their opportunities for influence on their own needs and requirements. The results are based on statements from six semi-structured, individual interviews conducted by the qualitative method. Empowerment, paternalism and social capital are among the study's theoretical frame of reference. The main results show that more participants are critical of aspects of coercion and involuntary willingness in participation. Motivation for participation seems to mainly be linked to whether the activity is experienced as meaningful, as well as to the attitude of the staff.

During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company?s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk.